


A Kiss and a Fish

by Defira



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Bisexual Female Character of Color, F/F, Fluff, Lesbian Character of Color
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-28
Updated: 2013-02-28
Packaged: 2017-12-03 21:28:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/702818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Defira/pseuds/Defira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ashley comes from a big and boisterous family, whereas Shepard was raised as an only child. Ashley helped to take care of all three of her sisters while they were growing up, but Shepard can't even keep her fish alive for any significant length of time. </p><p>What's a Spectre to do when she doesn't know how to have The Baby Talk with her girlfriend?</p><p>Written for the Femslash February/Fembruary Challenge on Tumblr</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Kiss and a Fish

“Got another email from my sister.”

Yesmin Shepard glanced over her shoulder absently. “Sarah?” she asked, momentarily distracted by Ashley’s bare legs stretched out over the rumpled bed sheets. Her lover was only wearing a pair of boxer shorts and an oversized shirt that looked suspiciously like one of hers, and there was plenty of bare skin on display for her to peruse. 

Ashley shook her head, her face relaxed as she rolled onto her side, the data pad held loosely in her hands as she skimmed over the words. “Abby,” she said, eyes flickering from side to side as she followed the line. “Sent a few more pictures of the kids through.”

Yesmin turned back to the fish tank, frowning as she craned her head to try and see through the ferns. “Food on the face, dirt on the knees, the usual?”

“You guessed right,” Ashley said absently, and Yesmin could hear the affection in her voice. She made a happy little sound, and it made Yesmin’s stomach flutter. “Gosh, they’re growing up so fast. I’ll blink and suddenly they’ll all be a foot taller than me.”

“That must make them about your height now, then, tatlim,” Yesmin teased.

Ashley reached forward and poked her with her toes. “Jerk,” she said affectionately.

“Öyle mi? That’s _Commander_ Jerk to you, Williams.” She slapped at her foot playfully and Ashley grinned and tucked it out of reach, under the edge of the blankets.

“They’re asking how I am after Mars,” Ashley continued, skimming over the words, “and they’re asking after you as well.”

Her stomach flopped about uncomfortably at that. Her girlfriend’s family were asking about her? Was it out of genuine concern for Ash and the woman in her life, or was it the awe of having an in with Commander Shepard, saviour and Spectre? “I saw a vid on a gossip site that said I’d been replaced by an advanced AI programmed to _think_ it was Yesmin Shepard,” she said, “and then another one that said I had renounced my humanity and had been adopted into a Krogran clan. That one had a really badly shopped photo of me half naked on Tuchanka. You could send her a link to one of those, if you like.” 

Ashley sounded wryly amused. “I doubt my sister would appreciate you sending her children nude photos.”

“Hey they’re not _my_ nude photos. Plus everyone has an aunt or uncle like that. The one that you can’t tell if they’re cool or cringingly awkward. I want to be cool Teyze Yesmin.”

“The kids haven’t even _met_ you yet- I think it’s a little early to be sending them potentially risque photos, regardless of whether it’s actually you in the shot or not.”

Yesmin leaned forward and tapped on the glass of the tank, trying to startle the inhabitants into revealing themselves. “Way to shoot my plans down in flames. Some of us don’t have nieces and nephews to practise on, you know.” 

“You make it sound so sinister- _practising_ on them.” They lapsed into silence for a few moments, until Ashley spoke again. “What are you doing, by the way?”

Shepard let out a pathetic sigh. “I think my fish are dead,” she said, her chin in her hands.

“They’ve been dead for a few days,” Ashley said in amusement, glancing up over the top of her data pad. “I had Sam organise to get the tank cleaned. I’m surprised you didn’t notice sooner.”

It hit a sour note in her, and she tensed slightly. “Some of us are a bit too busy saving the galaxy to take care of fish.”

The awkward silence that hung in the air for a beat made her stomach flip flop unpleasantly. “You know I’ve offered to take care of them for you,” Ashley said carefully, setting the data pad down on the bedside table. “And Sam said she’d be happy to do it too if you’re off ship.”

“I know, I know, it’s fine,” Yesmin said, already regretting the decision to say anything at all. 

“Clearly it’s not.” The sheets shifted, a gentle whisper of sound, as Ashley sat up. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong,” Yesmin said quickly, biting her tongue.

“Hey now, skipper,” Ashley said, crawling forward and looping her arms around Yesmin’s shoulders. She planted a soft kiss on the side of her neck, resting her head on her shoulder. “What’s got such a bee in your bonnet?”

“A _bee_ in my _bonnet_? What is this, Williams- you keep a book of old proverbs in your drawer there?”

“Only the official one, Mina.”

“No one likes a smart ass.”

“Lies, you love my ass,” Ash said, nipping at the edge of her jaw, enough for it to sting a little while the contact sent a sizzle through her blood.

She couldn’t help but grin, turning towards the kiss so that Ashley could run her lips over the curve of her neck. “That sounds like a challenge to me, tatlim,” she said.

“Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. Your call, Commander _Jerk_.”

Yesmin twisted in her arms, half tackling her as they fell back against the sheets together. Ash gave as good as she got, and they tussled for a moment, skin to skin, strength pitted against strength. 

A kiss that was half smile, broken off by a laugh; just firm enough to make her lips ache, just enough teeth to make her skin sting. Ashley never held anything back, and never did things by half measures. It was exhilarating, trying to hold such a fierce and loving woman in her arms, afraid to be too firm with her and terrified of being too gentle. It was a battle every time they touched, and it delighted her. 

They lost a few minutes in glorious nonsense, kisses that were half biting, hands that gripped hard enough to leave them both gasping, and then Yesmin felt Ashley smile against her neck, and suddenly found herself flipped onto her back. 

Ash sat astride her waist, arms crossed. Her hair was deliciously tousled, and her cheeks were flushed as she panted for breath; she was a goddamn vision in a shirt two sizes too big and Yesmin felt her pulse race as she stared up at her. “Now you can’t escape without a fight, so you’re going to tell me what’s wrong.”

“I thought we _were_ fighting.” Yesmin immediately took the opportunity to run her hands up Ash’s bronzed thighs, delighting at the muscle beneath the smooth skin- and promptly had her hands slapped away.

“ _Mina_ ,” Ashley said, raising her brows at her. If she’d been standing, she would have been tapping her foot impatiently. As it was, her bare legs were tauntingly clamped over her hips, and the shirt was hanging loose around her shoulders- enough for it to droop tantalisingly and expose a hint of collarbone. Good for biting, that was. “You’re not even paying attention to me, are you?”

“Course I am,” she said instantly, attempting a winning smile. Ash’s expression didn’t change, and when Yesmin’s fingers went creeping towards the hem of the boxer shorts again Ashley slapped her fingers away again. 

“I don’t mean that kind of paying attention-”

“But that’s my favourite kind of paying attention!”

Ashley gave her _the look_. “You’re not going anywhere and you don’t get to touch until you tell me what’s wrong, skipper.”

Yesmin pulled a face and stared up at the roof, her gut twisting uncomfortably. “I killed my fish,” she said bluntly, annoyed at the vulnerability she felt with four such mundane words.

“So? You kill your fish all the time. It’s a noteworthy occasion when you _don’t_ kill your fish.”

Yesmin scowled at her. “Alright, alright, there’s no need to rub it in.” 

“So what’s the problem? I’ll take you out to Citadel Souvenirs next time we’re in port, and you can pick out some shiny new ones to kill.”

“I don’t _want_ new-” She bit her tongue and stared up at the roof. “That’s not why I’m upset.”

“Well, come on, don’t make me drag it out of you. Some of us on this ship aren’t mind readers. Why are you upset?”

Yesmin stared up at the roof, because it was easier than looking at Ashley. “Well, because...”

When she trailed off awkwardly, Ashley squeezed her thighs over her hips. “I have ways of making you talk, Mina,” she said archly.

“Doesn’t it _bother_ you?”

“Your insufferable refusal to get to the point?”

“No, not that...”

“Then _what?_ ”

“Don’t you want to have kids someday?” Yesmin said quietly, fiddling with the corner of the blanket. She didn’t have the courage to look up just then, because if she saw the wrong thing in Ash’s eyes, she didn’t know if she could cope. 

It was sort of laughable, that the woman who could handle kidnappings and assassination attempts and resurrections and mutiny and galactic war struggled to have awkward heart to heart moments with the woman she loved. 

Ash was quiet for a terrible, long heartbeat, before saying just as softly “Of course I want to have kids, Yesmin.”

There was love in her voice, along with the hesitation. She didn’t know what to make of that.

“Well,” she said, flummoxing around for the right words, “doesn’t it bother you?”

“Does what bother me?”

“That I’m a fish serial killer.”

Ashley raised her brows again. “Yesmin,” she said patiently, the amusement back in her voice, “I can tell you right here, right now, that a kid is going to be a little harder to overlook than a fish. Just because you’ve been absent minded a few times and forgotten about a handful of fish- usually with good reason, mind you, given the number of people trying to kill you and all life in the galaxy- doesn’t have any bearing on what sort of mother you would be.”

She felt a pleasant flush of heat in her belly at that. “I dunno,” she said awkwardly, smugly pleased with Ash’s praise. “I forget to feed myself most days unless someone reminds me- can you imagine me with a kid in tow?”

Ashley’s smile was soft, and there was something in her eyes that made Yesmin’s heart rise into her chest. “I can, actually,” she said, her palms flat against Yesmin’s belly; she could feel the heat of her hands even through her shirt. “And I think you would be an amazing mother.”

“Oh, now you’re just making shit up.”

She shook her head. “They’d be smart, and gorgeous, and witty, just like their mom,” she said, her fingers tracing patterns on Yesmin’s stomach.

Shepard fought the shiver that the touch was rousing in her. “You’re wrong, of course, they’d get that from their _mom_.” 

Ashley grinned. “Well, they have to get the good genes from _somewhere_ ,” she said slyly. “Was that seriously what you were worried about? That you’d think I’d never trust you around a child because you killed a few fish?”

“A few _dozen_ fish,” Yesmin corrected.

“Oh god, skipper, you make me laugh, you know that?”

Yesmin felt her face prickle with a blush. “It’s just, you’ve come from such a big and boisterous family, and you raised all your sisters, and you always talk about your nieces and nephews-”

“And a ship on the frontline of the war against the Reapers is no place for a child,” Ashley said gently. “I love you to pieces, Mina, but sometimes you’re dumb as a brick.”

Yesmin grabbed the pillow beside her head and thumped her with it. “I didn’t say I wanted to knock you up right now!” she said, doing her best not to grin.

“Oh, so now _I’m_ the one that has to get pregnant?” Ashley said, putting her arm up to defend herself from the errant pillow. “I’m the one that has to get fat and teary and left at home while you swan about the galaxy posing for reporters and generally looking fabulously sexy-”

“I always look fabulously sexy, I’m just giving the people what they want to see anyway.”

Ash snatched the pillow out of her hands- with some difficulty- and batted her with it. “I hope some of that fabulously sexy is for my benefit, Mina,” she said teasingly. 

Yesmin reached up and grabbed a fistful of Ashley’s shirt, tugging her down until their noses were touching. “Kalbimin tek sahibi sensin,” she said, kissing her fiercely enough to leave her lips aching. 

When Ashley pulled away, gasping and giggling, she said “What the hell does that mean? You can’t win an argument by using another language, that’s cheating.”

“I’m the Commander- I can do whatever I want.”

“Uh, lies, you are currently trapped between my legs, you aren’t going anywhere without my say so. So I guess you _can’t_ do whatever you want.”

Yesmin rolled her hips experimentally against her and delighted in the way Ashley tipped her head back and shivered. “It means ‘ _you are the only one that owns my heart_ ’,” she said, running her hands up Ashley’s thighs, taking particular care with the jagged pink scars that had not yet faded to white. She had come so close to losing her on Mars, so stupidly close to losing the one person who made her want to get up and keep fighting on the worst days. “Because, well, it’s true.”

Ash’s grin made her stomach flip flop in anticipation. “Awww, skipper, you have a romantic side hidden in there after all,” she said. 

“Wanna practise making babies?”

“I take it back.”


End file.
